The Black Jewels Trilogy

Daughter of the Blood:
This is another of my most favorite series. I love all of Anne Bishop's book and this is a re-read for me in preparation for 'Twilight's Dawn' coming out in a couple of months. I read the book in the HUGE trilogy book all together in one sitting but I decided to separate the books for review so I could better explain my love for each book.

This is the first book in the series and I think it's the darkest of the three. Bishop openly and widely talks about rape, slavery, and pedophilia...I know, I know what you are thinking...sounds like 'WHAT!?!?!' huh? Yes, these are all themes in the series...as are family, trust, friendship, and love. This book, as I said before, is dark. It starts out pretty gruesome and then show more continues on and gets a bit worse, and then ends horribly, and the whole time you read it all you can think is 'I can't do anything but keep reading!!'

As gruesome and horrifying this book is, it is balanced by the amazing characters, the love and devotion you feel for this world in every page, and the sheer addictiveness of the writing. There is not one single part of this book I skip over, even on the fourth re-read. I can't stress to you enough how amazing this story is as a fantasy...be warned though, this is not for the weak-minded or the weak-stomachs.

Heir to the Shadows:
This the second book in the Black Jewels series. It is still somewhat gruesome, but way less horrifying and somewhat hopeful. I read this book as the last one in one sitting, all in one day. I can't even begin to describe to you the addictive quality of this author's work...if you she writes a short story on a napkin, I would sit down and read every single bit of writing on it, crinkling my neck the whole way.

The characters and the entire world together, perfectly blended are what make this story the amazing piece of literature that it is. I feel in love with Jaenelle and Daemon in the first book (who I imagine in my head to look Damon for VD a tad bit older) and I keep falling in love with them as I continue to read...they are a love story beyond love stories. I was sad we had to spend most of this book without Damon but...I know he comes back in full color in the next.

I loved meeting all of Jaenelle's true family and friends in this book. It is amazing to imagine a world so large and so wide-spread and yet, she got here there and everyone to be with everyone when she was a child. I like this book more the the first one and less that the third. Once you dive in, you won't be able to come back out. I love this series so much!

Queen of Darkness:
This is the third book in the Black Jewels series and my absolute favorite. This book is in my top ten favorite books of all time, oh yes. I have gone on and on about this author's ability to write and make her entire world an addictive need for a reader. I have no told you have well she spins a tale. It is amazing the small details she has expertly woven into this world and these characters. The tiniest little things that separate a story from a fantasy.

By this point I am so emotionally invested in these characters I can't imagine the ending when I have to close the book...I don't want to even think about it, it is that devastating a though as I read. This book had a bit more of Ms. Bishop's signature darkness in it's pages but less than the first still. I loved seeing a different side of some of my favorite characters. You only show your true colors when there is real danger and real need and some of the characters in this book, truly do that.

I will say again, I love this series, I love Janaelle and Daemon and that, I promise you, will not be the last you hear about my love of this series. show less

My brain melted, and not in a good way "Have you read this?" a colleague asked recently, "It's so wonderful!" It so happened I had read the Black Jewels Trilogy, long ago. I remembered it as a Masterpiece of Unremittingly Awful. Could it be as bad as all that? Surely not. Oh wait. It was. mindbendingly dreadful on so many levels. The premise is potentially interesting: in a set of interlinked worlds/realms, a power-struggle is growing. In the Realm of Terreille, the Blood -- people with magical abilities -- are under the cruel thumb of Queen Dorothea who is enslaving males and destroying powerful females to retain her own position. In another realm, Hell, the ancient and world-weary Saetan rules the dead. Into this mix, comes the child show more Janelle. Janelle is a Special Person, the blond-haired, sapphire-blue-eyed central figure, around which the story revolves. Misunderstood by her "normal" family, she's also amazingly magical (most powerful witch-queen EVAR) and the foretold saviour of our heroes and the Blood. Saetan recognises her instantly as the daughter of his soul. Saetan's son, Daemon, slave of Dorothea, knows she's his future love. Everyone Bad wants to destroy or control her with inept and stupid plots. Can we all say "Mary Sue"?In this story, the BAD people are BAD (you can tell this, because they are all sexually abusive, increasingly physically repulsive, whiny miserable cretins). The GOOD people, on the other hand, are handsome and wonderful and darkly powerful. This power-imbalance gets ridiculous at times. Seriously: Dorothea, highest powered-BAD person has the same magical rank as the Saetan's butler. What is going on there? The characters are cardboard cut-outs with variously blazing eyes and snarly voices. (Snarl, snarling, snarled and snarly are used about 228 times. I counted.) We are told over and over again how dangerous and powerful characters are, but seldom or never see itdemonstrated. For example, Saetan is 50,000 years-old undead vampire and fearsome Lord of Hell, yet he generally frets and moans and sighs with all the threat and malice of a harried school teacher. For the entire three books. No matter their age, everyone behave and speak so. . .adolescently. Later in the book, when fluffy magic animals appear (hordes and hordes of damned magical animals), I lost the ability to distinguish between several significant male characters and the psychic ponies. Though to be fair, my brain was melting out my ears at that point. It becomes a magic psychic fluffy companion animal bonanza: Unicorns, ponies, puppies, big kitties, wolves, dragons, spiders... They all come to worship Janelle.Then, of course, there's all the sexual-abuse & enslavement rape, incest, paedophilia, torture and other sundry macabre horrors flying every-which-way. Really, its hard to keep track of it all and rather pointless (BAD people are BAD, remember? Yes, I got that the first hundred times). Oh, did I mention that men are controlled by magical cock rings? They are. Magical cock rings. All this sex and violence isn't edgy or daring, it's just gratuitous and eventually dull. On the surface, this series has some interesting things going for it. The female-dominated magic system is unusual and the interaction between caste and magical "jewel" power levels promised a potentially complex social system. Unfortunately, this is never developed. Nor are the worlds more than sketched. I never figured out what technological level these people were at. We've got magic, who needs consistency? Sometimes it is psuedo-medieval... other times we have city blocks, showers, modern plumbing and shopping sprees. So there we have it. In some ways it is so bad, it is fascinating. Perhaps that is why it was this a bestselling series. show less

The Black Jewels Trilogy is an amazingly complex good-versus-evil dark fantasy trilogy which sends you on a highly strung rollercoaster of emotions. The trilogy is made up of the three books: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows and Queen of Darkness.

The world that Anne Bishop creates is a matriarchal society led by queens and based on the caste system of the Blood jewels. There are queens of villages, towns, districts and provinces. The hierarchy dictates that a village queen serves the town queen, the town queen serves the district queen and the district queen serves the province queen. The Blood Jewels caste system relates to the amount of power or magic that a person or animal (Kindred) has. There are landens, those without show more magic and the Blood those with magic. The Blood are given jewels which represent their power level: birthright jewels and the jewels given after they make their offering to the Darkness – this is usually a darker jewel than their birthright jewel. The darker the jewel the more powerful the person / animal.

Daughter of the Blood charts the emergence of Jaenelle Angelline (‘Witch’, ‘Dreams Made Flesh’) through the viewpoints of Daemon Sadi (‘The Sadist’) and Lucivar Yaslana – half brothers and their estranged father, Saetan Daemon SaDiablo – the High Lord of Hell. Both Saetan and Daemon are the only ones to wear the Black the most powerful jewel before Jaenelle comes into the picture. There are three realms: Terrielle, Kaeleer (‘The Shadow realm’) and Hell. Saetan rules Hell and protects Kaeleer. Daemon and Lucivar are pleasure slaves in the court of Dorothea, the self- appointed high priestess of Hayll. She is not a queen and only queens are supposed to rule. She craves power so much that she corrupts the realm of Terreille by destroying all of the powerful queens and effectively destroying the harmonious relationship which is supposed to exist between the queens and their males, the most powerful of which are called Warlord Princes. The males are supposed to choose whom they serve and serve by their own will. Instead Dorothea rules by fear, the females fear being ‘broken’, losing their magic either through breaking their mental shields with magic or by rape. If broken badly enough they can be lost to the Twisted Kingdom (a place of mental insanity) or even die. The males fear being ‘shaved’ (becoming eunuchs)for Dorothea's entertainment (outside of Terreille this can be a punishment for rape).

As a seven year old child Jaenelle Angelline asks Saetan to be her mentor, to teach her craft, when he sees that her birthright jewels are the Black and that she not only holds one but many he agrees. During the next few years she goes missing and Saetan attempts to find her but there is one place where the dead cannot enter. Jaenelle has protected against him. Dorothea with the help of Hekatah, Saetan's evil ex-wife, she finds out about Saetan's new obsession and sets out to either destroy Jaenelle or lure her to their side.

In Heir to the Darkness, more than two years have passed Jaenelle is still in the abyss that is the Black, she is fearful and will not return to her body. When she finally comes out of her coma she does not remember the trauma that precipitated it. Saetan does his best to help her heal by inviting her old friends to visit her, which helps her find herself again. Meanwhile Daemon is looking for Jaenelle, unable to remember what he has done, only remembering the blood on his hands. He worries he has killed Jaenelle. He goes to break his brother Lucivar out of a prison camp but is met with hostility. Lucivar was told that Daemon raped and killed Jaenelle and says as much to Daemon who runs off and becomes lost to the Twisted Kingdom tormented by what he believes he has done.

When the Dark Council come to believe, through Dorothea's manipulations, that Saetan is harming Jaenelle they attempt to take her away from him, she fights back in the most extraordinary way which leaves the council begging. Lucivar breaks out of the salt mines and makes for his homeland battered and broken. He is found by Jaenelle and Saetan who over the course of many months help him heal. He becomes Jaenelle’s protector, even protecting her from herself. After many attacks on her friends from the Kindred lands Jaenelle is forced to make her Offering to the Darkness and comes out with the unheard of Ebony jewels, she sets up her own court and becomes Queen of Kaeleer, the most powerful Queen there has ever been in order to protect them. Eventually Jaenelle remembers what happened to her and can’t believe that she forgot Daemon. She goes into the Twisted Kingdom and leaves a trail for him to follow with the promise of the Consort’s Ring and that she will be there when he comes out.

In Queen of Darkness, people are pouring into Kaeleer from Terrielle desperately trying to escape a society where rape and torture are apart of everyday life. Jaenelle is reunited with Daemon but Dorothea and Hekatah have found a way to get the power they have always craved, Terreille will go to war with Kaeleer but will Kaeleer go to war with Terreille? No? Then who will go to war with Terreille? Witch. But will she survive? After all, 'Everything has a price'.

This book (or books) may be too macabre for some but it takes the very worst and the very best that humanity has to offer and sends the reader on a fantastic journey. There are manipulations and misunderstandings aplenty with some doing evil because they are evil and some doing evil in order to do good. Your expectations of the characters are twisted especially with Saetan Daemon SaDiablo, the High Lord of Hell and his two sons Daemon Sadi and Lucivar Yaslana being good guys, who would have guessed!

This trilogy is both terrifyingly sadistic and beautifully triumphant. And at times it can be hilariously funny. I would say this trilogy is a cross between Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel trilogies and Trudi Canavan’s Black Magician’s trilogy. This is definitely one of the best books I have ever read. show less

The story drew me in from the start. I was intrigued by the magical matriarchal society, with a shifting power dynamic determined by caste, rank and class depending greatly on magical power--and the title heroine, Jaenelle, long prophesied and awaited, throwing a joker into this deck.

Bishop is adept at making the child protagonist of the first novel intriguing and yet act her age, in creating a winning group of peers for her in the second novel about her adolescence, and drawing it all into a satisfying conclusion in the final novel with her as a young woman. And though this trilogy is (rightly) described as a "dark fantasy" there is a great deal of leavening humor in the novels. I like Bishop's inversion of the demonic, and Saetan, show more Lucifar and Daemon are well-drawn, endearing characters.

Is it perfect? No. I could pick some holes in plot; I have style issues (particularly some pet phrases that I could wish she'd use more sparingly like "midnight voice") and I think Daemon's arc isn't as strong as Saetan's or Lucifar's; I think because for him it's too much all about Jaenelle. But I do give the overall trilogy five stars because for me this is a standout among the fantasy novels I've read in terms of a unique and intriguing world, characters I care about, and the ability to move me to laughter or near tears. There are disturbing elements in the novels, particularly the first; depictions of child abuse are an integral part of the first novel, Daughter of the Blood, but I was entranced by a magical world unlike any other I've encountered in fiction. show less

This review spans the first three books in the Black Jewels Series - Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadow, and Queen of the Darkness.

Saeten SaDiablo, Daemon SaDiablo, and Lucivar Yaslana have spent a lifetime waiting for the living myth, dreams made flesh - a queen that they could be proud to serve. The book opens with a Black Widow witch prophesying the Queen’s arrival. 700 years later, Jaenelle Angelline enters their lives. Jaenelle’s birth family are blind to who she is, believing that she is an emotionally damaged and eccentric child. The consequences of her family’s choices are devastating, and long reaching.

I read these books when they first came out in the late 90’s. I was captivated then, just as I am now. The male show more characters are some of the most dark and erotic I have ever read. The feral energy and strain to contain it adds a dimension of tension to the plot. Anne Bishop is an amazing world builder and storyteller. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series show less

Daughter of the Blood
Heir to the Shadows
Queen of the Darkness

"Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch saw an ancient prophecy come to life in her web of dreams and visions.

Now the Dark Realm readies itself for the arrival of its Queen, the Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But the Queen is still young, still open to influence - and corruption.

Whoever controls the Queen controls the Darkness. Three men - sworn enemies - know this. And they know the power that hides behind the blue eyes of an innocent young girl. And so begins a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, where the weapons are hate and love - and the prize could be terrible beyond imagining..."

I first read The show more Black Jewels Trilogy about 18 months ago, while on a ship in Libya of all places. It was recommended to me by Rhinoa, and I did really enjoy it, but it wasn't love. I have since read the follow-up books, Dreams Made Flesh and Tangled Webs, and suddenly found the desire, nay the need to reread the trilogy.

It is now official. I love The Black Jewels Trilogy, and indeed this entire world Anne Bishop has created. Few stories have gripped me in this way, even fewer upon reading them for a second time. I have actually found myself struggling to get into the car in the morning, because I couldn't put the book down. I even snuck away to a hidden corner in the office (a la Nymeth!) some lunchtimes to have a read.

Anne Bishop is a fabulous storyteller. There is no other way to explain what it is about these books that draws the reader in. It is not simply her writing, or her characters, settings or plots, it is a glorious combination of all the above that blend together forming a delicious concoction of fantasy, magic, with a large dollop of darkness that simmers with suspense, and a touch of the erotic. Set in a world where in each race, there are some people who are Blood, and some of these wear the Jewels, and possess the varying strength and power given to them by these Jewels. A trio of male characters form the backbone of this story, each wears a dark Jewel, and each has his own trials and tribulations throughout the trilogy. It is their shared desire to love, serve and protect Witch that brings them together and ultimately shapes their paths. Thousands of years pass, but when Witch finally appears, she is not what anyone expects, a mere child, vulnerable to physical and emotional attack and corruption. These men must pull together in order to help this young girl shape herself into the woman she must become if she is to rule and save the Blood who have been tainted by evil for millenia.

To describe Bishop's world as detailed would be an understatement. This may be a little daunting at first, but the reader soon gets used to it. Bishop has created a hierarchy amongst the Blood, Protocol by which the courts must abide, and an emotional intensity among her characters that rarely translates well onto the page. Almost every character here is somewhat unstable. Emotions are heightened, especially rage, loyalty and lust. Traditional gender rules have also been changed, with females generally more dominant. Two of the main male characters have spent centuries as pleasure slaves, making them bitter, resentful and dangerous. This danger is palpable. It practically leaps off the page and grabs you by the throat.

When I read Dreams Made Flesh, it was Lucivar's character that I enjoyed following the most, but upon rereading the trilogy, I find myself far more drawn to Saetan, the High Lord of Hell. He is the glue who holds this family, this alliance, together until Jaenelle is old enough to come into her full power and status as Queen, and more importantly as Witch. He is ancient by our standards, and yet youthful in comparison with other characters. He is a formidable opponent for most, yet trembles in the glory of Witch. His strength and vulnerability are what make him one of the most interesting characters. Just when I think I have his character pegged, he does something to surprise me. I still love reading about Lucivar, his impulsive and independent nature, yet his overwhelming desire to serve and protect Jaenelle, and his willingness to die for her, and what she represents. But the other part of the story that really captured my attention far more this time round was the Kindred, animals who are also Blood and wear Jewels, who are also responsibly for dreaming Witch into existence. They more than any other Blood in this story are the ones that trust and hope, placing their faith in the Witch, when even the best of men and women would doubt.

I dearly hope that Anne Bishop continues this saga. With Dreams Made Flesh and Tangled Webs, the author showed how a story can be continued and developed without detracting from the power of the original trilogy, and there is much more potential for character development within the world she created. It pains me that Bishop's work is largely unheard of in the UK, and I for one will definitely be sharing it with friends who are fans of fantasy fiction. I cannot recommend these stories enough. show less

One of the worst books I've read in a while. It read like the author's self-indulgent fanfic. The plot is weak and largely an excuse to put the heroine (or sexy retinue) in situations that are designed to show off her immense incomprehensible power and yet crippling helplessness. The overuse of awkward fabricated curse words ("Mother Night!") and excessive drinking of blood-wine and whiskey convince me that the author is not much of a curser or drinker herself, and was using them as crutches to make everyone seem badass. It succeeds in making them seem like fratboys.

It felt I was reading the transcript of a really bad tabletop roleplaying game, in which the gamemaster gave a 12-year-old girl unlimited power for her character and a show more strong hand in steering the story. show less